Reply Re: Removal of Report Button from eBay Messages

[ittybitnot]

For those of you that participated/read the weekly chat from last week, the question was asked regarding removal and perhaps reinstatement of the "Report this Message" button for inappropriate use of the eBay message system. 

You can view a recap of the original question and the response here, Message 90, page 9:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Weekly-Chat-with-eBay-Staff/Community-Chat-June-5-1-00-pm-PT-General-T...

Members that have come here asking about these seemingly odd messages have often been told to ignore/delete/not to respond etc.  we need to have them copy/paste (removing identifying information) so the information can be collected as per the suggestion by tyler@ebay 

If you have any left in your message inbox, post the text here.  Since this ID was primarily for posting and buying, mine were typically spam with solicitations to buy stuff someplace else. I just DELETE.   The more dangerous ones are in regard to requests for package redirects, and "give me your PayPal information so I can pay" type things. 

tyler@ebay  I do appreciate your response, and understand that the solution is not always what we want to hear.   I would like to respectfully suggest that the "proactive filters" are not working all that well.  If they involve some AI that is supposed to "get smarter over time"  maybe (humor intended) you can file SNAD and get your money back???

Hopefully, you get some c/paste posts here.  

[abfabvintage]

@ittybitnot 

Hey. Hope you are having a good day before Father's Day lolol. I am still confused. I thought the point of the Report Button was to Report? Which entails ebay receiving the entire ebay message with the Sender information to deal with it on the Sender level if you know what I mean? Just gleaning out keywords, filters, etc. doesn't get to the crux of the matter which, to me, is to stop these "Senders" from phishing our messages. If I am wrong, please correct me?  I thought, maybe wrongly, it functions just like if you do the Report the Buyer function...but again debatable if that info goes anywhere except maybe giving me some psychological assurance I did my duty to report and hope something will be done that curtails that Sender from doing it again? 

[ittybitnot]

 I am still confused. I thought the point of the Report Button was to Report?

LOL... What can I say?  eBay removed the report feature to avoid user confusion, such as you are experiencing now, and/or protect users from becoming overwhelmed by having to look at it?  

That makes about as much sense to me as the "artificial learning algorithm" stories. 

[ittybitnot]

Just gleaning out keywords, filters, etc. doesn't get to the crux of the matter which, to me, is to stop these "Senders" from phishing our messages. 

I was thinking about this.  I am not an expert, but I think it may be related to the idea that even if one ID is shut down,  they can simply come back the next day and get another one.   As another user pointed out, these less than desirable people use some sort of automated system, where many many  many numbers of these messages are sent out at once.  Even if they only get a "few" takers on the scam it is probably worthwhile.  

On the other hand, I have not noticed a bunch of new IDs posting to the threads selling the "hand cream etc." lately, so perhaps some progress in being made.   

[equid0x]

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@ittybitnot wrote:

Boy was that gut instinct right.  Minutes after adding him to the BBL, I started receiving disgusting, violent messages from this buyer.  I literally couldn't copy and paste a single full sentence from those messages here without violating the board TOS, but I'll try to at least convey how bad it was within the rules here. 

I would think that disgusting and violent eBay messages would qualify.  However, using copy/paste might run into issues on the board.  You may be able to post a "paste" per se so long as you redact all the bad words..LOL.. This board still thinks a particular name of a fish is a "bad word"... Give it a shot...just use ****** instead of what was really said?  

For "minor" bad words, the bot will simply insert "BLEEP" but if there are too many they become overwhelmed and confused which may result in a nastygram. 

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The bots here seem to be a little too trigger happy. You can even mention a male cow's excrement by initials only without getting the BLEEP out. 

[equid0x]

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@abfabvintage wrote:

tyler@ebay 

I am not trying to be snarky. So when you collect up these phrases or keywords, you technically will be educating the eBay AL to recognize these problems? That is what it sounds like to me? I would think doing the direct report to the Report Button that includes all the information it also captures who sent the inappropriate ebay messaging mail? Now I am really confused. Doesn't take much though.

And at a later time, would love to see the rationale for the vulgar language "policy" (not sure if there is a policy?) that you say is another topic? Most internet conglomerates have a zero policy in place. Why not ebay? 

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It seems like a basic Bayesian probability filter, used on many popular spam filtering packages, would be all that's needed to filter these messages. The filter can be automatically trained via a "report spam" button or link. 

I wonder why a vulgar language filter isn't already in place that simply prevents the sending of a message if it contains any of the popular expletives. Pretty simple to achieve with javascript alone, but can also be done server side with little effort. 

[nc-daydreamer]

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@itsjustasprain wrote:

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tyler@ebay wrote:
Ultimately with this thread I'm looking for keywords and phrases that indicate to you that someone is trying to phish you or take sales off site.

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tyler@ebay: Why was the report button removed?

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tyler@ebay: Why was the report button removed? 

And what is the issue with it being reactivated? 

Using it might be a moot point, but it makes one feel 'pro-active' to use it. Just like reporting an ad violation - it might do no good, but at least one can feel as though they tried. (My case in point, I've been reporting one seller's picture violations for at least 10 years - and they are still permitted to use generic (picture coming later) placeholder instead.) If eBay does not care, it makes the rest of us wonder why do we?

[coffeebean832]

tyler@ebay 

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Fake-PayPal-payment/m-p/29941589#M1440210

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Buyer-attempting-to-scam/m-p/29936822#M1439546

[bigdeals.etc]

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tyler@ebay wrote:

Hi @bigdeals.etc - I've let the moderation team know what we're working on here, and they know to give this thread leeway.  🙂

If you come across any other examples please share them here - please just edit out any usernames or actual contact info. 

Thanks!

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A couple of days ago:

"

Sub: Get Your eBay Products On The Front Page.


Dear eBay Seller,

If you're missing out your products on the front page on eBay, you're missing the sales. As you know, The best selling products are always on the front page.

Research says around 70% visitors, Searching relevant keywords, Don't even scroll to the second page. So the best initiative you take to boost up the daily unit sales of your store exponentially is "The Specific Keyword Ranking on the Front Page".

We are Available for Specific Keywords Ranking for your Products. We can Rank your eBay products on the Front Page and keep it there for months with the Best Selling Search Terms!

So when people will look to purchase the product with the keyword, they'll find your product on the front page. It will increase the regular sales of the products.

Our experts do legal search engine optimization (SEO) to rank your product on the front page with all the latest updates so you're fully relief from the tension of sales once you confirm the order and have nothing to worry about!

We prefer working on a regular monthly basis so you don't need to worry about the promotion every month. The promotion will surely increase the sales on a regular basis.

No upfront payment. No spamming. No seller central information needed. No risk at all in it! You only have to pay when your product appears on the front page.

If you are interested to try out the best and honest promotion service for your eBay products, just ping me on Skype for more details and pricing. Thanks.


Regards,

________"

[bigdeals.etc]

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tyler@ebay wrote:

Hi @bigdeals.etc - I've let the moderation team know what we're working on here, and they know to give this thread leeway.  🙂

If you come across any other examples please share them here - please just edit out any usernames or actual contact info. 

Thanks!

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1 hour ago:

"

They are talking about you on eBay Community.
It's true what they say about you?
https://www.reported-seller.info/community/ebay.co.uk/Item-not-as-described/true_M60744
Shame on you!"

[ittybitnot]

If you are interested to try out the best and honest promotion service for your eBay products, just ping me on Skype for more details and pricing. Thanks.

Was that one in eBay messages? 

[a_c_green]

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@bigdeals.etc wrote:
1 hour ago:

"They are talking about you on eBay Community.
It's true what they say about you?
[link deleted by me]
Shame on you!"

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That is one of the oldest on-line scams ever. I first encountered it being spewed by a particular net.kook way back in the early 1990s on the early text-based user groups collectively known as Usenet (and if any of you have heard of that, raise your hand ). The gag was that he would claim to have seen defamatory postings about you on his own forum, but you had to pay a "subscription" fee in order to read it or post a rebuttal. I doubt that this is the same guy, but the wording is definitely the same.

[bigdeals.etc]

Yes all of the ones I've provided here are sent to me within ebay messages. I just get copies of every eBay message in email form.

[ittybitnot]

Yes all of the ones I've provided here are sent to me within ebay messages. 

Thanks! 

[kh-leslie]

Hello Everyone,

Due to the age of the thread, it has been closed to further replies.  Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thanks for understanding!